Stanford professor...

Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky starts his story of religion

discussing schizotypal personalities

—not quite schizophrenic.

The right amount of metamagical perception,

—he suggests hearing voices from a burning bush—

might confer some kind of evolutionary edge.

He then applies the theory to other conditions.

A mild version of obsessive compulsive disorder, for example

might help one follow rituals.

But Moses didn't just tell Israel stories of a burning bush;

he showed them to a burning mountain.

In Deuteronomy 13 and 18, Moses provides criteria for prophets' credibility

whether what they predict comes true.

To whatever extent biology can explain religion,

the Hebrew poets argument seems not to be that there aren't false visions

or even that the witnesses are normal.

In 2 Peter 1, the apostle Peter writes,

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables

...but were eyewitnesses of his majesty....”

So even if Saint Paul had epilepsy of the temporal lobe

—causing his fascination with religion and his urge to write—

the argument appears to be that poets noticed something real.